"N" is for Noose: A Kinsey Millhone Novel (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, 14) - Softcover

Grafton, Sue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250050332 ISBN 13: 9781250050335

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2014

Synopsis

"SMART AND SASSY" (New York Times) P.I. Kinsey Millhone is at it again in "N" is for Noose―another thrilling adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton

Tom Newquist has died. A detective in the Nota Lake sheriff's office, Tom was tough, honest, and respected by all. He was also a heavy drinker and a workaholic, much to his wife Selma's distress. And now that Tom is gone, Selma can't help but wonder what it really was that was troubling him....

What made Tom so restless during the last six weeks of his life? Why was he up all night and brooding all day long? What―or who―was at the heart of his dark moods? With the coroner's report in hand, Selma decides to enlist the help of Kinsey Millhone to find the truth about what happened to her husband.

But the residents of Nota Lake keep their secrets close―and their enemies closer. And the deeper Kinsey's investigation goes, the closer she comes to confronting the most dangerous outcome of all: the truth...

"A" Is for Alibi
"B" Is for Burglar
"C" Is for Corpse
"D" Is for Deadbeat
"E" Is for Evidence
"F" Is for Fugitive
"G" Is for Gumshoe
"H" Is for Homicide
"I" Is for Innocent
"J" Is for Judgment
"K" Is for Killer
"L" is for Lawless
"M" Is for Malice
"N" Is for Noose
"O" Is for Outlaw
"P" Is for Peril
"Q" Is for Quarry
"R" Is for Ricochet
"S" Is for Silence
"T" Is for Trespass
"U" Is for Undertow
"V" Is for Vengeance
"W" Is for Wasted
"X"

About this title

Review:

"Suppose we could peer through a tiny peephole in time and chance upon a flash of what was coming up in the years ahead?" The questioner is Kinsey Millhone, middle-aged, two-time divorcee detective and junk food junkie star of Sue Grafton's popular "alphabet" mysteries; the book is 'N' Is for Noose. If Kinsey had had just a smidgen of foresight, she would never have taken her current case, handed down to her from her on-again, off-again flame and comrade in arms, Robert Dietz. We encounter the two this time out after Deitz's knee surgery, as Kinsey drives his "snazzy little red Porsche" back to Carson City, where she checks out his digs for the first time. To her surprise, he lives in a palatial penthouse, which--under the unspoken bylaws of investigative etiquette--she qualmlessly snoops through. They sit around for a fortnight playing gin rummy and eating peanut butter and pickle sandwiches together, but perennially single Kinsey grows wary: "It was time to hit the road before our togetherness began to chafe."

She heads off to meet Dietz's former client, Mrs. Selma Newquist, a devastated widow whose makeup tips seem to come from Tammy Faye Baker. Her husband Tom Newquist, a detective himself, had been working on a mysterious case when he abruptly died of a heart attack. Selma suspects foul play, but bless her, she isn't the brightest star in the sky and can't figure out what Tom was working on even though he's left behind enough paper to fill a recycling truck. Kinsey digs right in and roams the sleepy, one-horse town of Nota Lake for clues, interviewing a colorful cast of in-laws and locals. Beneath the quaint, quiet, country veneer, she unearths a bubbling hotbed of internal strife and familial double-dealing. Was Tom covering up for his partner? Is Selma protecting someone? Grafton's knack for gritty details and realistic characters ("[Selma's] skin tones suggested dark coloring, but her hair was a confection of white-blond curls, like a cloud of cotton candy"), coupled with the fast-paced, believable story line, makes for another delightful, entertaining read. --Rebekah Warren, Bestsellers editor

From the Publisher:

"Book for book, this may be the most satisfying mystery series going."
--The Wall Street Journal

"There are few writers able to sustain the solid mixture of detection, narrative energy and cultural observations that one finds so often in Grafton."
--Washington Post Book World

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1250050332
• ISBN 13: 9781250050335
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352